Airborne

Airborne has a strong background in engineering, manufacturing and maintenance of composite components for aeronautic and space applications, with involvement in aircraft programmes such as the Airbus A380 & A350, Gulfstream G650, NH90, Chinook, Apache and Galileo, Sentinel and AstroTerra satellite programmes.

With the available engineering, production, MRO, and quality control capabilities, Airborne can offer integrated Design and Build programs for a large range of structural composite components. Furthermore the company is participating in international technology development programmes for future aircraft and space programmes, on topics such as fibre placement, RTM, thermoplastics and smart structures.

The company exists of two manufacturing facilities: one in The Hague, The Netherlands and one in Girona, Spain. The MRO services business unit is located on the Airbase Woensdrecht of the Royal Netherlands Airforce. Airborne was established in 1995 and has currently more than 140 employees.

Airborne Aerospace BV has the following facilities:

• Clean room (1000 m2), assembly (4.000 m2)
• Ovens, autoclaves (largest 13.5 x 2.65 m)
• Discrete winding machine (thermoset and thermoplastic): 6 m length, 1,5 m diameter
• Continuous winding line (thermoplastic, 2 km pipe, 3,5” and 9” OD)
• Advanced Fibre Placement research set-up
• Automatic prepreg cutters
• CNC milling machines (largest, 7 x 3,5 m 5-axis)
• Laser projection
• Air-scan, 3-D laser tracker

The production processes of Airborne Aerospace BV include:

• Pre-preg – autoclave / oven
• Injection technologies (VARTM, RTM, RFI)
• Winding (Thermoset and thermoplastic, discrete and continuous)
• Thermoplastic (Fibre placement, consolidation, welding)